Internet-connected battery turns your old smoke detector into a smart one

There's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night to the chirping sound of your smoke detector, wailing practically for the whole town to hear that it's low on battery.

While smart smoke detectors from companies like Nest warn you ahead of time when the battery is low (and are an attractive addition to the home for many reasons), most cost $99.

But a new company called Roost is offering a smart battery for your existing smoke detector that essentially lets you retrofit your way into a connected home.

It works with a corresponding app and alerts you when the smoke alarm activates (even if you're not at home), gives you one-touch access to important emergency numbers (police, fire and so on) and notifies you weeks before the battery is low to avoid the chirping.

The Roost smart battery ($35) is gaining popularity on crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter, securing nearly $30,000 of its $50,000 funding goal in the first 24 hours of the campaign.

The size and weight of the smart battery is the same as a typical 9V one you'd find in a smoke alarm. It features a low-power Wi-Fi chip and can be used for carbon monoxide detectors, too.

The battery is said to last up to five years (compared to a typical 9V battery's one-year life span, if you're lucky), thanks to its use of (more expensive) lithium cells.

Although $35 may sound like a lot for a battery, you'll save by not having to swap it out so much — and considering more than 350 million U.S. homes have smoke alarms and over 20% have dead or missing batteries (according to Roost), anything that keeps one running longer seems like a worthy investment.

Backers can invest in the product now, but the Roost smart battery will not start shipping until June 2015.

Source:
mashable.com/